Day 1 Prompt:
an ugly Christmas jumper / "Is that a present for me?" / "If you think I'm spending Christmas drinking eggnog and shagging you, forget it!"
Warning: domestic violence
word count: 1,024
Between his sister-in-law lamenting that Yuletide never had enough sacrifices and his sister nagging her new husband, Bast was starting to hate the holidays. He yawned and his jaw made a loud cracking sound that no one seemed to notice. The Lestranges had an odd little tradition that instead of gift-giving on the morning of Christmas, gifts were exchanged after Christmas dinner before the late evening pudding.
It was something he was accustomed to, of course, but he was seriously petitioning his parents for a change in policy. If he had to hear Adelaide nag Piers one last time...
"What is this? Is this a present for me?" she said, her voice loud and shrill from the settee where she and her new husband were ensconced giving one another their personal gifts. She held up an unflattering pea-soup green jumper with reindeer antlers stitched into the front. Two pompoms decorated the antlers in strategic places on the chest of the garment.
Bast couldn't help himself and burst into laughter with one look at the thing.
"Bastian," his mother scolded in a quiet voice, "Don't be so rude! I'm sure Piers put a lot of thought and heart into his gift for your sister." Her words said one thing while the look of utter disgust making her upper lip curl couldn't be hidden.
"C'mon, Mother," he said, a bit louder than he should have—he was almost positive someone had spiked the eggnog with a fuck-tonne more booze than normal—"You can't deny that's an ugly Christmas jumper!" Father was hiding a grin behind his glass of eggnog but Bast could tell from the crinkling around his eyes that he found the jumper humorously ghastly as well. Roddy and Bella both were sniggering from their settee on the other side of the room.
Piers looked suitably distressed and Addy stood and stormed off. After a moment, when no one else seemed to move, Piers stood to follow. His ears and neck had turned ruddy in his embarrassment.
Bast glanced at the other two couples in the room. Bella and Roddy had gone back to whispering with one another and Father and Mother were sharing one of those looks he'd seen them share before, that, "One of us should really go and speak with her..." look. Bast stood and his parents looked relieved. Did they think he was going to sort out the newlyweds?
He headed in the direction they went and instead of approaching his sister to calm her down or to pat his brother-in-law on the back and sooth his embarrassment, Bast ducked behind one of the suits of armour and peeked behind it to watch them.
"I can't believe you gave me something that—that horrid!" Addy said, she spoke with wild gestures of her hands when she was upset and she almost smacked Piers in the face before she brought them both to wring together at her mouth. "What possessed you to embarrass me in front of my family like that? If you think I'm spending the rest of Christmas drinking eggnog and shagging you, forget it! You—you—" She was so spitting mad she couldn't get the words out and instead growled ineffectually in her husband's direction.
Piers's mouth kept opening and closing like he was doing an impression of a fish. It took him a few moments before he found his words. "I've never—I didn't know you gave personal gifts to one another in front of family, I would have kept it aside. I meant it as a joke, something you could wear for me once and then have the elves donate it. How was I supposed to know that personal gifts weren't exactly given in private?" His voice had gained strength until he was speaking harshly to her. "If your family wasn't such odd, perverse, inbred—"
"You're an utter bastard!" she said, raising her hand to strike him across the cheek. He caught her wrist and twisted it, causing her to bend forward and move closer to him to prevent pain.
"I only married you for the family money, you know that right?"
She snarled the next words from between grit teeth, "You can just keep waiting for it, as well. You'll not get a knut if I can help it."
"Bitch." His hand raised to strike her and Bast stepped from behind the suit of armour, immobilising Piers Selwyn before he touched Adelaide.
"You should know," he said, casually strolling towards the pair, "that I don't take kindly to someone threatening my sister." Addy was stepping back and patting her cheeks to try and ease the flushed look that had come over her. Piers was frozen with his arm raised mid-air but his eyes were wide as he looked at Bast who was pointing his wand at Piers's face. "She can always remarry if you happen to accidentally perish. I'm sure she'd even mourn your passing for an appropriate amount of time. She has always struck a pleasing figure when wearing black." Bast stepped even closer and pressed the tip of his wand into Piers's throat, pressing tightly against the fleshy, tender skin there. When he spoke again, it wasn't the casual, conversational tone he'd had just then, no, this time his words were quiet and calm and the look in his eyes promised violent and terrible things that only an inbred madman could think to devise. "Don't you ever touch my sister with a cruel hand again or I will cut it off."
Piers, a Death Eater in his own right, could only stare with wide eyes from his immobilised position.
"Come sister, dear, I have a present or two for you," Bast said to Addy, still staring death into Piers' face. After a moment when she didn't respond, he glanced up at her, resuming his casual, relaxed posture. "Addy?"
"Of course, Bast. I have a gift for you too," she said. She took his arm and he escorted her back into the parlour with the family. Before he was through the door he cancelled the spell immobilising Piers. Hopefully, the fucker would get the hint and retire for the night.